Not Just a Jewish Peasant!

Like all Protestant churches built long years ago, no doubt the congregants of this one in my town would have confessed, proclaimed and sung, The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust….. Psalm 18:2. In sermons and songs they would have had zero doubts as to, who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God? Psalm 18:31. Not so today! The Rock of the LORD, Christ and the Bible have all been tossed out. Go there today and you will hear, “There is no God, in the usual sense of an interventionist deity – what we strive for is a presence both within and beyond us.” Sounds a bit like Genesis 3:5.

Not only has Jesus been tossed out, but to the mind of the popular and influential leader of the church, Jesus Christ was, “just a Jewish peasant who was certainly not God.” In the old days the church had a chapel. The building is still there but not as a chapel, it’s a room. “It’s quiet, it’s isolated, it has no religious symbols about it.” In fact it does have religious symbols – it has a rock! That’s right. The church Dean said, “It has symbols in the way of a rock, which is identified as being something under which you attach as being secure and safe as a rock.” So there sits the rock, skillfully crafted and set with chairs placed around it for those wanting to sit quietly and reflect. One might feel “secure and safe as a rock” in there, but without God it’s a delusion nevertheless.

Topping it off, there’s a glass-like symbol pointing upward from the top of the rock. Said the Dean, “a symbol of something like hope arising out of the rock.” With both symbols speaking so loudly of our Lord God Almighty, I can’t figure out if this is God’s way of mocking these godless church people or whether He’s using it to grab the attention of some of them. I certainly pray God would use it to reveal Himself as the God of Rock and Hope to anyone questioning the lies and deceptions taught in this synagogue of Satan. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ 1 Corinthians 10:4. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope…… Romans 15:13.

Yet one further symbolic feature at the base of this rock – water – “and water is the fount of life,” says the Dean. This is what happens when one makes it their business to think and speak of Jesus, the Giver of Life, as “just a Jewish peasant.” A photo of church attenders shows the majority of them to be 60-plus years of age which makes me think surely at an earlier age they would have heard these words of Jesus from somebody somewhere, But whoever drinks of the water I give him will never thirst. But the water I give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life John 4:14. If they were a bunch of 20 or 30-somethings it would be a different story, but there’s no excuse for this lot.

So there it is; these who ought to know better, they want nothing to do with the one true God, but they have a room consisting of three symbols perfectly representing Him anyway – a rock, hope and water. If there’s no repentance from them I believe those three symbols will eternally haunt those involved with the setting up of that room. No Rock in hell to cling to, no hope of there ever being one to cling to and no water with which to quench the thirsting tongue; a hell of their own making, indeed! The human heart certainly has immeasurable capacities to delude itself, but to my mind these people take the cake because most people caught up in religious symbolism will not foolishly say there is no God Psalm 14:1. Having said that……….

If religious symbols are all you cling to in your endeavors to get close to God, they will take you away from God. Regardless of what they might do for your feelings, without the word of God firmly underpinning you they can do nothing for your faith. Roman Catholicism is one classic example of this. They have a list of symbols a mile long, yet those clinging to them at the expense of God’s word don’t have faith. Why not? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God Romans 10:17. They’ll tell you they have faith; they’ll argue that point with you till they’re black and blue, but their faith is not real because it’s not based on anything that is real. Having your mind on God is no substitute for having the mind of God.

God is for symbols and symbolism; the Bible is packed with them. Symbolic names, numbers, colors, garments, metals, animals, objects – but all of them represent Bible truths not fantasies, myths or fables. All are designed to lead us closer to God, to know and honor Him, to trust and serve Him. In the Bible, symbols may represent things past, present or future – or all three at once. Take the rainbow for example. It symbolizes God’s promise not only to Noah but to all peoples of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy all the earth…. I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth…. Genesis 9:11-17.

The serpent is symbolic of Satan, demonic spirits and hypocrites. Genesis 3:1-15 records Satan’s rise and Revelation 20:2 records his future downfall. As for demonic spirits running riot everywhere, God’s promise to His people is clear. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra. The young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot Psalm 91:13. As for hypocrites, Jesus gives the word and so should we when they enter churches for destructive purposes. Had the godly in the “church” mentioned above said similar 45 years ago Jesus Christ would still be Lord of it. Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Matthew 23:33. Satan’s people can get no foothold in a church unless God’s people grant it!

John the Baptist called Jesus, The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world John 1:29. The Lamb is symbolic of Christ, the submissive one. There’s no more graphic a picture of the submissive Jesus than the one painted in Isaiah 52:13-15 to Isaiah 53:1-12. So badly beaten up was the Lord, His visage was hardly recognizable as that of a human being. And to think those blasphemers above can speak of this same Lamb Jesus as “just a Jewish peasant.” Something else symbolic but very, very real: the Lamb’s Book of Life Revelation 21:27. The names of mockers, deceivers and liars are not written in it. The kingpins of the “church” of this post perfectly fit those categories. Only humility and repentance to the Lamb perfectly unfits them!

Both John and Jesus give witness to a dove descending upon Jesus at His baptism Matthew 3:16; John 1:32. The dove is symbolic of the Holy Spirit of God. It symbolizes innocence, meekness and tenderness – the nature of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the inspiration, the quickening power and the invisible presence of God in the world. For the church, the Holy Spirit is our Teacher, Guide and Comforter. He is the Author of the Bible and the Revealer of all things in it. Without the Holy Spirit Jesus could not have said the things He said and He could not have done the things He did. Neither can we as a church. Without the Holy Spirit the church ceases to exist. Is it any wonder the “church” of this post is not a church!

The sword is a Bible symbol – especially the two-edged variety! The two-edged sword is symbolic of God’s word. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is s discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Hebrews 4:12. The folks above will find out just how living and powerful it is one day, for if it doesn’t convict them in this life, it will condemn them in the next Revelation 1:16; 19:15. The one whom they call “just a Jewish peasant” will be the One to condemn them and they’ll discover that one nanosecond after their soul leaves their body. Too, at that moment, they will see that what they believed on earth means nothing in eternity.

Of the multitudes of symbols and things symbolic in the Bible, the door is the most important. The door is symbolic of Jesus, the Savior. Most assuredly (‘verily, verily’ ‘truly, truly’ ‘amen, amen’), I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber John 10:1. There’s only way – Jesus. There’s only one truth – Jesus. There’s only one life – Jesus. John 14:6. Listen to someone telling you otherwise, and you listen to a liar. Worse: He makes God a liar, Jesus a liar and he makes the Bible a lie. There is a God, His name is Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and Redeemer, our Lord of Lords, our King of Kings -not just a Jewish peasant! Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves Matthew 7:15.